Bill Nighy, Oliver Hermanus and Kazuo Ishiguro talk about capturing the beauty of life to "live"

If you're a creative person plagued by insecurities, you're in good company. Bill Nighy is an actor and a likely Oscar nominee this year (finally!) for "Living," but he says matter-of-factly, "I've traditionally been beleaguered by self-doubt." He adds dryly, "I don't know if it's different from anyone else because I've never been anyone else."

Every time Nighy lands a role, "I invent a hostile parallel universe where I'm on the about to get fired. Which is kind of a joke, but it's tragically true. But I didn't on this one. It's because Nighy knew he was part of the lot when the movie was born.

On a panel with Nighy and "Living" director Oliver Hermanus, screenwriter Kazuo Ishiguro said that he had been "obsessed" with Akira Kurosawa's "Ikiru" in 1952 since he was 12 or 13 years old. "I thought, wouldn't it be great to make a new version for this generation? It had to be done, set in England with Bill Nighy.”

He pitched the idea to producer Stephen Woolley.

Nobel Prize-winning novelist Ishiguro continues, "I said, 'Go do it and you you'll be grateful to me." Stephen said, "Why don't you write the script?" I said, "I'm not a screenwriter." He said, "Try it and if it's awful, we will give it to someone else.' But it wasn't terrible.'”

The three were talking during a Q&A after a screening and it's clear from the audience reaction that this is a special film. Some Oscar contenders impress you; some move you. But there are very few, like "Living," where audience members feel a personal connection.

The film is about government bureaucrat Mr. Williams (Nighy) who learns he has a terminal illness, so he tries to experience the things he missed, in the little time he has left.

It's a tour de force for Nighy and even the smallest roles are filled perfectly.

Director Hermanus makes the most of the script and its actors. “I really like talking with the actors. I'm very strict with the crew, they have to shut up and give space to the actors."

The director adds: “The actors are magical, when you watch them bring an emotion to life. The scene where Bill sings in the pub - I was walking towards the monitor, past the crew members crying, every time he sang it, what was that, 15 times?"

Hermanus says 90% of his job is casting and "we had an amazing casting director, Kahleen Crawford. It's great to have an ally like that."

Ishiguro smiles: "When I met Oliver, he seemed like a reasonable guy. But when we started working, I realized he was being unreasonable: he's obsessively perfectionist. Every scene, he wanted a rewrite 'just for fun'. So things changed. But everything got better. "

Ishiguro adds, "It's a movie I've been thinking about for a long time. In my head, I could seeing Bill perform every line. But when I saw one of the first cuts, it was better than I expected. If you're a writer, you learn a lot about your characters from the actors. That was a revelation. You realize that a script is a little thing that people build things on. It's a fantastic experience."

When asked about the movie, Nighy shrugs, "I've never seen it." The actor has achieved great performances in film and television since 1976 and on stage even before that. But he avoided watching everything, including "Living".

It's a working process for him, so there's no point in changing it. But it lacks great performances.

Hope voters won't miss this one.